We had a fun day at the Mt. Greylock Trail Races. Debbie ran Greylock for the 15th year in a row, which I find truly remarkable. She burst on to the New England trail running scene in 1999 and is still going strong. I’ve been to 13 of her 15 Greylock’s and I’ve run 10 of them myself. She is my “Queen of Greylock.”
Today, we both ran the “half marathon,” and the next generation ran too. Our son did the 5K and he loved it. Thanks to the Carew Family for looking after him during the race. Apparently, he was “bombing the descents.” He was thrilled. Thanks to Kim Brown for watching our daughter while we were all frolicking in the mud, including her husband, Todd, who did the Mt. Washington Road Race/Greylock combo again.
Donald Pacher also did the double, yet he was still strong today. He and I were together on the climb up Greylock and for a few miles of descending, but I couldn’t hold his pace. It was a wet one today, after all of the rain that we had in the past week. The trails held up OK, but the dirt roads were a mess.
The weather was OK. It was overcast and relatively cool at Greylock Glen. There was no wind on the summit. I had one very hard fall coming down the back side of the mountain on a jeep road. I knew it was going to hurt before I hit the ground. My right knee, left elbow, and left hand took the brunt of the impact, but I bounced up and kept going, albeit a bit more carefully.
This is a heavy week for me as I cram in the distance and intensity around a busy work schedule. I had a beautiful ride in the Connecticut River Valley yesterday, covering more than 75 miles in brilliant sunshine. So I wasn’t on my “A game” today, and finished about seven minutes slower than last year.
Debbie finished 2nd, which was a nice bounce back result after last week’s Cayuga Trails 50 miler. More importantly, she felt better and pushed it hard at the end. The Shenipsit Striders had the tent set up and we had a nice contingent up from Connecticut. It was great to see all of our WMAC friends too. Special mention to Tony Bonanno who came screaming past me on the final descent. He had a strong race.
We stopped at the Haymarket Cafe in Northampton for smoothies and buckeyes. The only challenge was two smoothies for four people creates conflict in the car! Then we did dinner at Agave Grill in Hartford. It was a great family day.
Life Adventures 
Looks like a great day all around, Scott! From the races to the smoothies at Haymarket (always a good choice). I cringe at the description of the fall. We’ve all taken that digger where it’s almost in slow motion because your brain knows it’s going to hurt the nanosecond you start to go down, and then there’s all the dread during that slowed down time on the descent. Glad it wasn’t a dealbreaker. I’d meant to go race this one and then turn around and take pics of runners still coming in, but foolishly I sprained my ankle during a quick scouting jog in Pisgah State Park on Saturday morning. At first I thought I’d still be able to do Greylock, but on Sunday morning the ankle still had a tennis ball sticking out of it. Next year!